Creating children’s literature for an ecocentric future

Abstract

“Creating Children’s Literature for an Ecocentric Future” is a dissertation project that explores children’s literature as a means of encouraging environmental stewardship and creating social change. The dissertation is a combination of practice-based research and critical content analysis that relies on theoretical approaches such as ecocriticism, picturebook theory, postcolonial theory, and multiculturalism and diversity. Through an analysis of and reflection on The Striped Catshark, the ecocritical children’s picturebook that I created specifically for this dissertation, I investigate in what ways ecocritical children’s literature may encourage pro-environmental behaviour and attitudes, and furthermore, how such literature could challenge and dismantle ‘White universalism’ by representing diverse and authentic perspectives from southern Africa.

The dissertation is divided into several chapters: a literature review, an outline of applicable theory and the research methodology, and the critical content analysis and critical reflection. The literature review situates the project within relevant and related research by outlining the field of ecocriticism and its interdisciplinary reach into children’s literature and postcolonial theory, with an emphasis on the need for more diverse representations of and from the Global South. Alongside picturebook theory, the chapter on theory and methodology develops a hybrid of theoretical lenses that comprises ecocritical, postcolonial, and multicultural approaches. Collectively, these lenses provide a holistic ecocentric framework for conducting the analysis. Furthermore, a section on the project’s methodology explains the steps of the analysis, from its critical approach to its selection of five units from the picturebook for in-depth exploration. Finally, the critical content analysis and critical reflection apply my theoretical approach to The Striped Catshark in order to explore the picturebook in relation to my research questions. While the critical content analysis extensively addresses the first question, the critical reflection predominantly engages with the second question and offers suggestions for further developing the picturebook and shaping the future trajectory of children’s texts and related research.

Overall, the analysis findings point to the power of ecocritical children’s fiction to foster empathy and encourage environmentally sensitive behaviour among child readers. The findings also support the movement towards localised ecocritical stances, in this case by imparting a South African ecocriticism that celebrates native and endemic biodiversity. These results underscore the need for more research in this growing interdisciplinary field, especially regarding the intersection between ecocriticism and the development of emotional literacy through fiction. In response to the second research question, authentic representations of multicultural and diverse characters and contexts are urgently required in order for children from all backgrounds, not only the White minority, to find their realities portrayed in children’s books that thematise the natural environment. Moreover, intersections between environmental and social justice concerns need to be acknowledged both in children’s literature and its academic field. The dissertation thus concludes with final suggestions and arguments for creating children’s texts and conducting related research in service of a flourishing ecosphere.